[ Back ] [ Chapter 02 ]
And thus, the boat disembarked with Isha and several of her cousins she'd heard of but never met, leaving Noble and heading for Galba. She was not sad to see Akiva go. But enough about Akiva, it was time to turn her attentions elsewhere.
Once the boat finally got underway, her cousin Belak summoned herself and her other cousins below decks to discuss the mission at hand. Apparently one named Azralon didn't come easily; she'd heard he was a social recluse but his attitude was far beyond what was reasonable. The others seemed normal enough.
So cousin Belak conveyed that they were to travel to the Satrap of Achmenis and ensure the support of king Socar. They didn't necessarily have to solve whatever problem was plaguing them, but it seemed silly to come all this way and not do so, assuming they were not just rebelling. The trip across the pond would be 3 days, where they would land in the port of Galba, hire a river boat, and take the river 400 miles inward to the capital city of Achmenia. Once there, they would engage the king and determine what the issue was, if anything.
With their task now pinging around in their heads, the meeting was concluded and everyone headed up to the main deck. Isha followed Grantaire, the wood aspect, and engaged him in some conversation to get to know him better. He seemed a little overly straight-laced, but still a pleasant sort. He carried a bow with him and seemed as though he'd be a valuable asset in combat situations. He also had a unit of about 25 soldiers with him. Interesting. From there she sought out Rathimund the Fire Aspect and got to know him better as well. A magic user, eh? That could always be handy in any situation.
After that, Isha tried to talk to Azralon but his off-putting self-important manner drove her away after a few moments. Best to just leave that one alone for now. Perhaps someday he'd come around and be a tad more accommodating.
Nearing the end of the first day, the captain summoned all of them to his quarters for a discussion. Well, except Azralon didn't show up. The captain informed them the ship was being followed by two pirate vessels, described the ships, and Isha knew about the size of the crew. Each ship would have about 40 potential boarding parties, and the best way to handle it was to crush their spirits and get them to surrender rather than mowing through every single body thrown at them. She had to wonder, though, what it was they wanted from a ship like this. The cargo wasn't that interesting, so the captain described, but what about the passengers? No one really stood out but them.
Isha instructed the ship to continue forward and not do anything unusual. The captain nodded and everyone headed back onto deck. Isha went to inform Az of the situation and he waved her off without care.
About an hour before the ships would engage theirs, they assembled on the stern of the vessel to observe the incoming trouble. Az was there this time as well. The captain expressed his concern that he didn't want his ship damaged, so Isha told him he could have the slaves pull in their oars which would speed up the intercept time to about 5 minutes. He pounded a pattern out on the floor and they could hear the oars being pulled in. Isha turned to the others and told Grantaire to head up into the crow's nest. Rathimund expressed that he had quite a range on a few spells so she sent him up there as well. Isha didn't really like having her people clustered, but there was no help for it. She turned to Az only to find him already gone. Well, so much for that.
Grantaire's unit was sent below with the slaves to wait, and ensure that the ship was not crippled from below. Isha remained on deck and waited while the captain shuffled all passengers and as many non-combatants as possible that weren't needed to steer the ship below decks.
The ships came up along side the Starfall Blossom. Isha stood next to one, at the ready. Arrows and fireballs started shooting from the crow's nest before the other ship had even engaged theirs. A moment later, grappling hooks came flying, Isha knocked a few aside. More fireballs, arrows. Arrows came back from the ship at them. Isha ran along the deck and cut four or so of the rest of the lines and the ship started turning, drifting away. More fireballs and arrows. Isha dashed across the deck to address the other ship, who was closing the gap and boarding unhindered. Just as she reached that side, three marines landed on deck before her. She raised her daiklave at the one in the lead, and, with a flourish, cut his head clean off, spun it on the end of her sword, and then batted it off into sea. The body slumped between them in a pool of blood. Arrows started firing this direction from their crows nest, and were returned by a volley of arrows from the other ship. Fireballs then started dropping down over here too.
Isha pointed at one of the two marines left standing before her and then cut the other's head off, missing the second one. More arrows, more fireballs. The last marine standing before her, unsure of what to do, didn't have a chance to make a decision before Isha pointed her daiklave at him, and then simply whacked the shit out of him with the flat of her blade, knocking him clean over the side, his body smashing into the side of the pirate ship before falling into the murky depths.
The fireballs and arrows from her ship seemed to be preventing anyone else from boarding, so it was time to cross and take command of the vessel. Isha hopped on the railing and dashed across, landing in front of the few remaining terrified marines and scanned the crowd of people for someone in charge. “Everyone drop your weapons and get face-down on the deck, NOW,” she shouted.
Once everyone prostrate before her, she scanned the deck for the important people. She saw the captain slumped on the deck in a pool of blood. No arrows were anywhere near him and he didn't seem singed, which prompted several questions about what had happened to him. Well, those could be answered later. This was no good. Another scan of the crowd brought her to the first mate who did seem to be relatively intact. “You, first mate, get up and get over here right now.”
The man complied. “Don't any of you move if you want to live to see tomorrow.” Isha marched the first mate across to the Starfall Blossom. “Grantaire, come keep these pirates under watch. Don't let any of them move.”
Grant crossed to the pirate ship while she marched the first mate to the captain. The second ship was long gone, having given up in its support of this task.
An interrogation of the first mate revealed he didn't know their task or at least was playing dumb very well. He did say the orders would be in the captain's quarters in his safe. The back to the pirate ship Isha marched the first mate, and into the brig he went. Then when she came back up Grantaire informed her that Az was found loafing around in the captain's quarters sipping wine. Az stood on deck with a safe sitting next to him while attempting to issue orders to the crew in a comically bad imitation of a sailor. Isha stepped up and started ordering the sailors around and they began responding to her orders with compliance.
While the rest of the marines were shuffled down below decks into the brig, Az and the rest of her cousins got everything in order. Apparently they'd be taking this ship the rest of the way to Galba. At least, so Az demanded. Whatever. It'd be more work for them she supposed. What she really didn't know was what they were going to do with all their prisoners and the sailors on the ship. Well, hopefully they'd figure it out by the time they glided into port.
one day later, sooner by one day, their ship drifted into port. Blocking their way was a gigantic black ship that might have been screaming, and definitely looked like bad news. It signaled them, asking their intentions. Isha directed the crew to signal back “to dock.” The black ship signaled back, warning their ship away from docking, saying there was a plague in town. Isha had the crew signal back, “we dock anyway.” The big black ship signaled back requesting a meeting. Isha frowned, trying to decide what to reply. Their mission was none of these peoples' business, and from the looks of them, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them.
Az prompted her to agree to a meeting anyway. She weighed the benefits and consequences she could see, and the likelihood that the people on this ship were going to attack them. Probably unlikely unless Isha's group started something.
Finally, she capitulated and had them signal okay. They brought the ships together and the four of them boarded the vile black ship. They were ushered by an obviously dead person to a meeting room, where an annoyingly attractive anathema walked in and declared that he was called Piercing Voice of Winter. He said he was here investigating this plague which was something that apparently sprung up out of nowhere and was generating all sorts of hungry ghosts in the area. He seemed genuine.
Her biggest question was if he felt he or his master claimed these lands that actually belonged to her house. Having a 3rd party in port trying to order them around their own family's holdings made her a little irked. Sitting here in front of an obvious anathema having a chit chat made her even more irked. She did not like this person, she didn't want to have anything to do with him, and she definitely did not ever want to see him again. Normally she wasn't so violent but she'd rather be running a sword through this agent of the underworld than sitting here having a calm discussion.
He demanded she take her helm off. After going back and forth a few times, she lifted her visor. He then switched to a suave demeanor oozing sex appeal. Annoying. He mentioned how familiar she looked. She resisted the urge to call him an old man.
And then, and then, when they finally got off pointless topics, he had the gall to demand they bring any findings they discover back to him and divulge. He was even demanding a contract to that effect! No way, sir! She was signing nothing of his. Az seemed to feel differently. Boy, he must be sheltered if he was willing to deal with not only an anathema but an agent of the underworld. His stubborn pride would apparently not dissuade him from this path, but at least he felt compelled to demand new terms before the contract was drawn up.
Isha looked it over, her merchant's eye for such things would prove handy. She didn't see anything out of line, so she handed it back, nodding. Piercing Voice of Winter then asked who would be signing it. Not me, no sirree! So Az signed. She wanted to shake her head with annoyance but restrained herself. She did not like this at all. They headed back to their ship, and Isha intercepted any selling of the goods the ship was carrying to Piercing Voice of Winter, and deferred it. If there really was a plague, she did not want to sell off the foodstuffs in case what few people remained needed them.
They remained on the ship out in the water until morning. When the sun rose, they docked and disembarked, heading for the Nellens compound in town. The unit of soldiers belonging to Grantaire remained on the ship to keep it under her group's control.
The group made their way through town, noting how desolate and… stinky it was. Dead bodies littered the ground everywhere. Some discussion occured about burning the bodies but in the end everyone agreed to leave them be. When the group arrived at the compound, there were old signs of battle. A voice yelled from the parapet to turn back.
Az yelled back that their group were official representatives of house Nellens and that they needed to open the gates right now. After some amount of silent observation, the man replied that he had to go get his captain. A few minutes later, the doors of the compound swung open and they told Isha and her group to hurry inside. They complied, and the doors swung back shut immediately, with a loud boom. Bars were thrown in place and the captain turned to the newcomers and asked, “Are you our relief?”
Well, that boded ill. Isha explained that no, they were here to investigate the radio silence. The captain commented, “So the messages aren't getting through, then?” It was rhetorical.
They were ushered back inside the compound to discuss the events that had taken place. The captain, she took them back to see the Nellens emissary, an elderly man who was obviously dying… but not from the plague. Apparently some hungry ghosts attacked them on the way into the town, killing his wife and wounding him. With them was their recently exalted daughter, a wood aspect, approximately 18 years old. Luckily, she was not harmed. Once they finally made it to the compound, she got her father into the infirmary for treatment. The daughter, after talking with the chief of staff who had also come with them, declared she knew what must be done, and the daughter and chief of staff left.
It turned out that the chief of staff was secretly part of the cult of the god known as Adorned in Brass. Their destination appeared to be a temple dedicated to him. This happened 2-3 days before Isha's group had arrived.
It was obvious that the emissary would eventually die without intervention more significant than the mundane. He had a few weeks, best guess. If he died, his position would transfer to his missing daughter. They couldn't move the emissary given his degree of wounds. But they needed him to come with them to talk to the King of Achmenis. Either they had to save him somehow, or find the daughter if he couldn't be saved.
And then there was the plague and the hungry ghosts. Their work was definitely cut out for them.